Word: secrets
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...MDMA all but disappeared until 1953. That's when the U.S. Army funded a secret University of Michigan animal study of eight drugs, including MDMA. The cold war was on, and for years its combatants had been researching scores of substances as potential weapons. The Michigan study found that none of the compounds under review was particularly toxic--which means there will be no war machines armed with ecstasy-filled bombs. It also means that although MDMA is more toxic than, say, the cactus-based psychedelic mescaline, it would take a big dose of e, something like 14 of today...
Among these patients were a few entrepreneurs, folks who thought MDMA felt too good to be confined to a doctor's office. One who was based in Texas (and who has kept his identity a secret) hired a chemist, opened an MDMA lab and promptly renamed the drug ecstasy, a more marketable term than Adam or "empathy" (his first choice, since it better describes the effects). He began selling it to fashionable bars and clubs in Dallas, where bartenders sold it along with cocktails; patrons charged the $20 pills, plus $1.33 tax, on their American Express cards...
Last year Gravano's life in the slow lane sputtered. His identity, never a big secret, was disclosed by a local paper. The construction business, according to police, was far less successful than Gravano had hoped. But as Gravano whiled away the hours in the small brown office of Marathon Development--the same name he once used for a front company in New York--a new opportunity presented itself. Among the employees he had hired was an old acquaintance from New York, Michael Papa, a close friend of Gravano's son Gerard. By this time, Gravano was no longer trying...
...city's rave scene changed from spontaneous get-togethers to organized, clandestine parties complete with code words and secret phone lines, Papa and his friends were drawn to the action and quickly began to see the moneymaking possibilities. Using a supplier in Las Vegas, they began distributing low-grade ecstasy pills to clubs or wherever else the party drug was wanted. "Papa didn't need Sammy to teach him to be a gangster. He came by it honestly," explained a source familiar with the group. By all accounts, the ecstasy ring was led by Papa, a premed student...
...several months, police would watch as the gang made the rounds of restaurant parking lots to deliver ecstasy to couriers and buyers. Among the spots the gang used for dealing ecstasy was Uncle Sal's, a restaurant owned by Gravano's wife Debra; its motto was "The Best-Kept Secret in Scottsdale." Police say the restaurant was in her name only because Sammy could never pass the background check for a liquor license...